Tour de France, Grand Tour

July 11-August 2, 1998

Stage 4 Brief:

Stage 4 leaves Plouay at 11.10 and is scheduled to finish in Cholet at 5.15, the
distance being 252 kms. The major difficulty, apart from the distance, come at
the 95.5 kms mark where the Côte de la Secourette (a Cat 4 climb of 1.1 km at 5.5%)
is encountered, and then at the 204 kms mark with the Cat 4 climb of the
Côte de Lire (1 km long at 4.7%).

This was the longest stage of the Tour this year. 186 riders left
Plouay to contest the stage with 3 intermediate sprints (at km 62,
102.5, and 186). The "war of the bonuses" which would probably decide
who was in yellow at the end of the day ensured that the stage would
be lively. There was only a few seconds separating leader Bo Hamburger
(Casino), from George Hincapie (US Postal) at 2, and at 3 Stuart O’Grady
(Gan) and Jens Heppner (Telekom). After the first hour, Pascal Lino's
early effort came to nothing. Racing in his own region it was worth
the try. The first abandonment came at 37 kms when Italian rider
Federico De Beni stopped, a victim of the crash on Stage 2.

As was expected, the bonuses mattered in the end. It was Stuart O'Grady, the first
Australian since Phil Anderson (16 years ago) to wear the yellow jersey.
Two days after his team mate Chris Boardman crashed out of the race while
wearing yellow, the rider from Adelaide regained the jersey for the
GAN team after the fourth stage. Australian Phil Anderson first took the jersey in 1981
for a day and again in 1982 for nine days.

O'Grady (24) won two intermediate sprints to earn a total bonus of 16 seconds.
He was lucky though because he was involved in a crash near the end and lost some time.
He is quoted as saying: "This is the moment I have dreamt of ever since I started
cycling. It is so special. Phil Anderson was the only one so far to hold the yellow jersey.
Now there are two Australians."

[Bill notes: Doesn't it make you feel old Phil!!!]

O'Grady came to road cycling after an excellent track career where he won two bronze medals
at the Atlanta Olympics and was team pursuit world champion.

GAN manager Roger Legeay planned to help O'Grady win the intermediate sprints. That was the
team tactic for the day and it worked beautifully. However, earlier in the day it looked
as though it might fail when Jacky Durand and Damien Nazon attacked and held a breakaway
for 117 kms. They were caught again only 20 kms from the finish. Then another bad
crash 1 kms from the line caused havoc and endangered O'Grady's accession to the yellow.
Cipollini was involved in his second crash in the Tour.

Legeay was particularly ebullient about O'Grady. He is reported as saying: We were very
sad for Chris, now we're very happy for Stuart. He is like a son to me, since he came
to France as a 21-year-old, coming from 23,000 kms away."

Meanwhile back at the drugs scandal - Bruno Roussel, has been questioned by French
police. The team doctor Eric Rijckaert and another top Festina official have been
held for questioning. Under French law they can be held for 48 hours without a charge
being laid. The Festina hotel was searched by 8 gendarmes. The team masseur, Willy
Voet has been formally charged with drugs smuggling. The team management have denied
being involved despite Voet's alleged testimony to the contrary. He pleaded the
"Nuremberg defence" - I was only acting under orders.

Tour de France director Jean-Marie Leblanc confirmed that he would not be expelling
Festina from the Tour. The "it didn't happen during the race" defence! Other team
managers are not so sure. GAN's Roger Legeay (the chair of the Association of Professional
Cycling Teams) said he wanted it resolved quickly. He is reported as saying: It is not
possible to go on like this for three weeks. The race has been spoiled. We hope for legal
or sports sanctions to be taken as quickly as possible. We appeal to the conscience
of the Festina team."

Marc Madiot, manager of La Francaise des Jeux, is reported as saying: "If there are black
sheep, they must be kicked out."

Official Photos

These photos were sent to me by the official organisation of the Tour de
France. The Official WWW Site is at http://www.letour.com